Slovak PM Fico confirms plans to meet Putin at WWII victory celebrations in Moscow
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico confirmed he is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin while travelling to Moscow for the May 9 Russian World War II victory day.
Last year, Fico was the only EU leader to attend Moscow's 80th May 9 anniversary after he made a series of public pushes for the invitation including an unprecedented appearance on a Russian propaganda channel, Rossiya 1.
“I will lay down flowers at the grave of an unknown soldier of the Red Army to thank for the liberation in the name of Slovaks,” Fico was quoted as saying by Slovak press agency TASR.
He added that “I should have a short meeting with President Putin. That is all. I am not attending any military parade. It will be the same format as before”.
Fico’s words come shortly after he faced a renewed criticism from his junior ruling coalition partner, the ultranationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) over his latest reiteration of support for Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union.
Fico also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy while attending the European Political Community summit in Yerevan on May 4, and he announced there could be another joint Slovak-Ukrainian cabinet session before the end of June, which Zelenskiy referred to as “renewing of ties”.
“We are renewing ties with many countries. We met with Fico and agreed to prepare a cabinet meeting,” Zelenskiy stated, according to the TASR reporting, adding that “diplomats will now decide if [joint cabinet session] will be in Bratislava or Kyiv”.
Following the crushing defeat of Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party in the Hungarian elections, with whom Fico aligned his national conservative rhetoric after making an improbable comeback to power in 2023, the Slovak strongman is expected to take a more pragmatic approach to avoid isolation on the EU level.
“As we know, the ties of PM Fico with Moscow are better than the European average, but a certain pragmatic correction can be seen very clearly in his [Fico’s] course,” Polish PM Donald Tusk told media following the Yerevan summit.
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